Chapter 760: Chapter 720: The Gold Rush of the New Era
Upon hearing the reporter announcing the number “50,000,” Epic immediately makes a judgment:
This is not someone else’s cargo, and it’s not a mistake in the number either—the Coast Guard is very professional, how could they make such a basic mistake?
They must have deliberately underreported the number!
The Coast Guard’s unusual surprise inspection at this time and location must have been due to advanced and accurate information!
They may have even known about the 150,000 consoles on the ship before they set out.
Now they’re reporting only 50,000 consoles, most likely intending to pocket the remaining 100,000!
Furthermore, the large volume of 100,000 consoles can’t be hidden, so this must be a coordinated effort by the Coast Guard from top to bottom!
In America’s black market, a Mirage console sells for as much as tens of thousands of dollars. If the customer is found and extra effort is put forth, the price can even reach 50,000 dollars per unit!
It’s all thanks to the government’s ban that prices have been pushed to such unreasonable levels.
But the groundbreaking technology of Mirage ensures that there is no worry about sales, leading to the huge profits of smuggling consoles at this time.
Even at the lowest price of 10,000 dollars per console, if all 100,000 units are sold, the value would be a whopping 1 billion dollars!
If Epic were to make this money himself, he’d have to subtract a lot of costs:
He needs to spend money to establish procurement channels, purchase goods, establish sales channels, support his underlings in delivering goods, and maintain another group of underlings to ensure a show of force…
He must bear all these costs to make this money.
But the Coast Guard doesn’t need any of that.
They just need to sail their government-purchased ships, burn their government-bought fuel, and they can freeload on all of it within just two kilometers from the shore. Not to mention they can use the reported 50,000 seized consoles to claim credit!
With such a cost-free business, the Coast Guard simply cannot refuse!
Epic is furious.
But he is helpless.
He can’t mess with the Coast Guard; no matter how many gang members and thugs he has, they can’t possibly take on a legitimate army—and they wouldn’t even dare to think about it.
But after working so hard for so long and investing so much money, will it all go down the drain?
This would also be a huge loss that shakes the foundation of the entire gang.
What to do?
What to do?
Epic’s face darkens as his thoughts race through his mind.
At that moment—
“Buzz~~ Buzz~~”
The strategist’s mobile phone vibrates twice. He takes a look, his pupils dilate, and he immediately hands it to Epic.
Epic takes the phone and sees a message from one of his underlings—
[Boss, a man came to the bar saying he has 100,000 Mirage consoles to sell to us. He also said that our boss definitely needs them. Is he here to cause trouble? Should we kick him out?]
“FUCK!!!”
Epic is instantly furious, slamming the phone hard on the table, causing the strategist’s eyelid to twitch.
But the strategist, clear-headed, remains silent, calmly waiting for Epic to think it through.
He believes that Epic will come up with the right answer.
And indeed, he does.
“Tell those sons of bitches…” Epic’s teeth almost grind to dust, “I’ll take them!”
“But I want cash…I don’t have any!”
“I need the goods first then pay! At least give me half of the merchandise first, otherwise, we can’t come up with that kind of money!”—Actually, they can afford it.
The strategist nods, “Understood, I will personally handle it.”
“One more condition: they must release the delivery guys! If they don’t agree, tell them that if they release the delivery guys, they can make another profit in two weeks.”
“Should we take the fall for the scapegoats?” the strategist asks, as had been the customary practice when dealing with official organizations in the past.
“Damn! Let them find someone themselves!” Epic is furious.
“Understood, I’ll go right away.”
The strategist picks up the phone and quickly leaves.
Although Epic is furious, he still manages to suppress his anger and make the most rational choice.
Securing the supply is the most important thing, and recovering losses comes second.
He quickly prepares himself mentally to give the Coast Guard a piece of the cake as well.
It’s simply a necessary evil.
The only advantage of Baltimore is its seaport, but no one can withstand the scrutiny of the Coast Guard when smuggling through the port.
Especially when he still hasn’t figured out how the Coast Guard got their information.
At this moment, he even envied his colleagues from Texas and New Mexico—
Their smuggling of Mirage Consoles seemed much easier than his own.
There are a massive number of smuggling routes and smugglers along the US-Mexico border. Recently, those who used to smuggle drugs and illegal immigrants have all started to switch to smuggling Mirage Consoles—the profits are huge and the risks are low; who would want to miss out on such an opportunity?
According to Epic’s information, 4.5 million Mirage Consoles have arrived in Mexico in the past two days, and more than 3 million of them will be smuggled into America.
If they can all be sold, the scale of the next shipment will only be more exaggerated.
This is simply a new era gold rush!
And he absolutely doesn’t want to miss this chance.
“Stick to the original plan and have all our brothers prepare for the delivery.”
After the last sentence, Epic stood up and left.
He needed to cool down and think about how to adjust the subsequent actions.
After Epic left, his not-so-smart nephew looked around, his face still puzzled:
“Why did they all leave? What’s going on?”
…
…
In Brazil, Rio de Janeiro also entered the late-night hours.
After contacting her friend Maydai, Giselle finally entered the “normal” world—Metropolis (Peace).
Here, she genuinely experienced everything Maydai had said.
Maydai took her to the busiest commercial street in Metropolis, casually transferred her 200,000 virtual currency, which scared Giselle a lot, but she refused again and again.
But Maydai said with a relaxed face, “Just take it, it’s not worth much, you can get it by robbing banks twice.”
—The value of virtual currency in Metropolis is highly inflated. The real estate transaction system and the presence of the “Golden Key” have recycled a lot of it, but due to the large number of gold rushers, the virtual currency in Metropolis keeps expanding.
In order to avoid bigger problems, Cloud Dream simply separated Metropolis currency from Night City currency.
And Metropolis, Night City, and the newly opened Virtual Xiajing City have non-interlinked currencies.
So this 200,000 virtual currency is not really a big sum.
But even so, it’s enough for Giselle to have fun in Metropolis.
Giselle has never experienced the feeling of being a big spender before:
See clothes she likes, buy!
See food she wants to eat, eat!
See things she wants to play, play!
…
As Giselle indulged in her shopping spree, Maydai thought for a moment and still didn’t tell her: most of the things she bought could actually be moved back home for free with zero-cost purchase.
After Giselle had her fill, Maydai guided her to add the free game “Paradise” to her account and took her to the amusement park to play.
At this time, there were fewer giant pandas in the amusement park but a lot of Silver-throated Long-tailed Tits appeared instead.
These tiny birds, with silver-white feathers everywhere except their wings, back of the neck, eyes, claws, and beaks, look like round furry balls, making them extremely cute and resembling glutinous rice balls.
These little birds are quiet, not noisy nor rowdy, and just as friendly as giant pandas.
Many little kids have one perched on their heads, one standing on their shoulders, and another held in their hands, all beaming with joy.
Giselle and Maydai also had a few small birds fly over and land on their shoulders when they entered the amusement park, affectionately rubbing their cheeks.
So Giselle ran around the amusement park, playing to her heart’s content.
Not until she remembered she had classes the next day did she reluctantly bid farewell to Maydai, logging out and leaving the virtual world.
As she lay in bed, Giselle reflected on her experience in the virtual world that evening, feeling as if it had all been a dream.
It was just too happy!
After finishing class tomorrow, she must go to Night City for a visit!
With this happiness and anticipation, she turned off her bedroom lights, closed her eyes, and prepared to sleep.
But as soon as her eyes closed, they suddenly opened again—
She remembered something:
“Didn’t I buy the Mirage Console to find opportunities to make money?”
“What have I been doing all night???”